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Comment by datavirtue | Hacker News Reader

Same here. I backup all DVDs to iso. Don't really care for BluRay because ripping/playing them is a nightmare. I then create MP4s and ingest them into my Plex server. I keep my DVDs stored away in the basement, making me 100% legal. Having your own media server is VERY nice. The ripping process is not straight-forware. Almost impossible to automate.

I would ravage this guy's store.

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During lockdown I ripped my entire DVD collection using makemkv. It's as close to one click as you'll get and works brilliantly. All my DVDs are stored away now and I play them from Plex in full quality.

My main issue is with ripping TV series. The title to episode mapping is all over the place.

Filebot is very helpful for this. There are free utilities too but filebot is pretty fool proof so worth the cost imo.

Technically storing ripped DVDs doesn't make the rip legal. However if they try to come after you for that the courts will start questioning the law and so you have a good chance of winning on appeal.

> Don't really care for BluRay because ripping/playing them is a nightmare.

What makes you say this? The only issue I occasionally run into is needing to clean 4k BR discs that aren’t reading well.

They might be doing it on linux. I've had the same experience. Supposedly it's possible! I never managed to get around the DRM nonsense.

makemkv->mkv->handbrake->mp4 is pretty straightforward for saving media, especially if you don't mess with handbrake much (I just use one settings profile for everything). _Playing_ bluray directly from disk is a PITA because of needing to set up the encryption keys and extra system libraries.

The part that eats my time is converting the subtitles from an image format (vosub/psg) to a text format (srt), since the image formats have never worked well for me on plex. SubtitleEdit is good but it still takes manual managing.

Edit: I forgot about the annoyance of finding a drive that works with ripping software, iirc there's only a couple that will without flashing firmware

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